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Sila language (Sino-Tibetan)

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Sila
Sida
Native toLaos, Vietnam
EthnicitySi La people
Native speakers
4,100 (2015 & 2019 censuses)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3slt
Glottologsila1247
ELPSila

Sila (also called Sida[2]) is a Loloish language spoken by 2,000 people in Laos and Vietnam (Bradley 1997). Sila speakers are an officially recognized group in Vietnam, where they are known as the Si La.

Phonology

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Source:[2]

Consonants

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Sila Consonants
Labial Dental/

Alveolar

Palatal Velar
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop plain p t k
aspirated tɕʰ
Fricative voiceless f s x
voiced ɣ
Approximant voiceless
voiced w l j

Unaspirated plosives are usually realised as voiced stops. Phonetically, /l̥/ is realized as [͡l̥l]. The palatal nasal is noted as /ɲ/ although the phonetic realisation is closer to [ȵ], with the blade of the tongue remaining at a short distance from the palate.

Example contrasts

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/p/ vs. /pʰ/: /pa33la33/ ‘moon’ vs. /ɐ31pʰa31/ ‘leaf’

/t/ vs. /tʰ/: /ta31/ ‘to look at’ vs. /tʰa33/ ‘PROHIBITIVE’

/tɕ/ vs. /tɕʰ/: /tɕɐ31/ ‘to have, to exist’ vs. /tɕʰɐ31/ ‘to speak’

/k/ vs. /kʰ/: /ki55lɯ55/ ‘green’ vs. /a31kʰi55/ ‘foot’

/f/ vs. /s/: /fɔ31/ ‘to protect vs. /sɔ31/ ‘to study’

/x/ vs. /ɣ/: /xɯ55/ ‘gold’ vs. /ɣɯ55/ ‘good’

/m/ vs. /n/: /ma̰31/ ‘person’ vs. /na̰31/ ‘deep’

/ɲ/ vs. /ŋ/: /ɲa55/ ‘frost’ vs. /ŋa55/ ‘salty’

/w/ vs. /j/: /wa33/ ‘careless’ vs. /ja31/ ‘child’

/l/ vs. /l̥/: /lɐ33wa33/ ‘palm of hand’ vs. /l̥a33/ ‘to fall down’

Vowels

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Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i y ɯ u
Close-mid e ø ɤ o
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ɐ

All vowels can be creaky vowels, which are contrastive.

Sila diphthongs are /ɤi/, /ai/, /ao/, /oa/.

Example contrasts

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/i/ vs. /e/ vs. /ɛ/: /pi33/ ‘to win’ vs. /pe33/ ‘to divide up’ vs. /pɛ33jo31/ ‘dragon’

/y/ vs. /ø/: /tʰy31/ ‘to spit out/ vs. /tʰø31/ ‘to wrap up’

/ɯ/ vs. /ɤ/: /tɯ31/ ‘to hit’ vs. /tɤ31/ ‘to soak’

/u/ vs. /o/ vs. /ɔ/: /tʰu55/ ‘thick’ vs. /tʰo55/ ‘to open a hole’ vs. /tʰɔ55/ ‘number of times/

/a/ vs. /ɐ/: /tɕa31/ ‘to eat’ vs. /tɕɐ31/ ‘to have, to exist/

Tones

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Sila has three lexical tonemes and two grammatical tonemes.

Toneme Class
55 Lexical
35 Grammatical
53 Grammatical
33 Lexical
31 Lexical

Phonotactics

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All consonants can occur as onsets, with /m/ able to form a syllabic nasal.

/j/ and /l/ may occur as medials, but /j/ only after bilabial and velar stops and /m/, and /l/ only after bilabial stops and /m/.

Unvoiced stops and nasals can occur as codas, but these are only found in words recently borrowed from Lao

Distribution

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According to Edmondson (2002), the Sila number about 700 people in Vietnam and live in the following 3 villages.

According to the elderly Sila, seven Sila families had emigrated from Mường U and Mường Lá of Phongsaly Province, Laos, 175 years ago. They initially arrived at a location called Mường Tùng, and relocated several times before arriving at their present locations.

In Laos, Sila is spoken in:[3]

References

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  1. ^ Sila at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ a b Badenoch, Nathan; Norihiko, Hayashi (2017-06-01). "Phonological Sketch of the Sida Language of Luang Namtha, Laos". eVols. ISSN 1836-6821. Retrieved 2024-03-10. Badenoch, Nathan; Hayashi, Norihiko. 2017. Phonological Sketch of the Sida Language of Luang Namtha, Laos. JSEALS Volume 10.1 (2017).
  3. ^ "Language name and location: Sila, Vietnam, Laos". Archived from the original on 2017-12-12.
  4. ^ Kingsadā, Thō̜ngphet, and Tadahiko Shintani. 1999 Basic Vocabularies of the Languages Spoken in Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
  5. ^ Shintani, Tadahiko, Ryuichi Kosaka, and Takashi Kato. 2001. Linguistic Survey of Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
  6. ^ Kato, Takashi. 2008. Linguistic Survey of Tibeto-Burman languages in Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).

Sources

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  • Edmondson, Jerold A. 2002. "The Central and Southern Loloish Languages of Vietnam". Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on Tibeto-Burman and Southeast Asian Linguistics (2002), pp. 1–13.
  • Ma Ngọc Dung. 2000. Văn hóa Si La. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất ban văn hóa dân tôc.